On Thursday, Aug. 31, prisoner Danilo Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Correctional Facility. This was the third time in recent news that a prisoner escaped from this very same facility.
According to cbsnews, another prisoner, Igor Vidra Bolte has escaped the same correctional facility twice in the past five years – the same way that Cavalcante escaped.
Both escaped by ‘crab-walking’ up a wall into an opening, as viewed in the security camera footage.
Three escapes, in five years, from the same prison. What is wrong with that statement? The Chester County Correctional Facility has released a claim stating that they plan to make adjustments to the security of the facility.
This correctional facility is located near Longwood Gardens in PA. This area’s population is about 19,531, according to census.gov. 19,531 people’s lives are put at risk every time a prisoner escapes this facility.
Locals were intensely waiting for a fortnight wondering what was around the corner until the police had Cavalcante in custody on Wed., Sept. 13.
Cavalcante went through with his crab-walking escape plan following the announcement that he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, according to cnn.com.
Putting aside the ease Cavalcante had escaping a correctional facility, the real issue here is that this has happened before..with the same escape method.
In this situation, if the issue of an easily escapable facility was adjusted when the first escape took place in 2019, then about 20,000 might now have been afraid of being murdered by a convict of “first degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his former girlfriend in 2021,” according to cnn.com.
Now, not pointing the finger at a specific correctional facility, this issue applies to so many things in today’s world. It is why so many things go awry. If issues in the world can be analyzed and solved immediately after the first hiccup in a process occurs, how many amplified issues would be saved from news headlines?
It comes down to this question: Do correctional facilities and prisons rely on the usage of human surveillance too much?
According to cbsnews.com questions are circulating the topic of “staffing levels and communication methods.” Was this a mistake of human nature, or was it simply a lack of physical security? At this point, the real issue here does matter in a sense, but truly it doesn’t. What matters is solving the issue – whatever it is – all together. This is a matter of analyzing errors in security and facilities, then acting to solve them.
This is a question not answered now, but a question to think about every time a human error leads to a big evening news story blasted across television screens.
